Landscape Design And Planning

As a part of my own continued landscaping training, I often make time to go to gardens and yards that are designed by homeowners and do it yourselfers. There are usually a lot of personal differences in each garden or yard that vary in imagination, budget, and design. But, the key deciding factor that I have seen between fantastic landscape design ideas and not so great is how much preperation was put into each landscape or garden.

It is understandable that the preperation process and picturing what you want may be frustrating and challenging for first time do it yourselfers. However, no matter how long it takes, do not skip this step. It's important to the final continued growth, adaptability, functionality, and appearance of your landscaping. Make the time to plan. Remember the following tips. They might be valuable for getting your ideas on paper and then to the yard.

When you start the design process it might be beneficial to think on the abstract instead of specifics. A lot of expertly skilled landscapers plan their designs this way. As opposed to becoming stuck on specific flowers that you want to grow in your landscape plans, think in terms of shape, colors, texture, size, and function of the plants that you need for specific areas. Specific plant types can be selected and researched once the plan is completed.

Try copying or drawing your dream landscape into your area as if you have a fresh flat dirt lot to start with. Look through landscaping photos and copy an entire design into your yard if you want to. Convert it, adjust it, or try something else. The purpose is to design without constraint and then see if you can adjust it and make it work with what you have.

A frequent design hindrance is not being able to look beyond what exists already. While it's nice to integrate existing views and elements that are pleasing, your landscaping ideas are not limited by a lot more than location, budget, and inventiveness. It's sometimes beneficial to think past what's already existing and proceed with a fresh plan in mind.

Try not to fill your head with each aspect of the landscaping design. Instead, pay attention to purpose, accessibility, shape, etc. Rather than thinking about exact supplies needed for fences, patios, walkways, decks, walls, and other hardscapes, think of the size, shape, purpose, access, convenience, and necessity.

The last tip is to keep it simplistic by keeping elements to only a few and then repeating them. Also, you could try making a point of focus in all the major areas. This might be simply a bed of roses, entry door or gate, or even a statue. Keep focal points to only one since too many will compete for focus and confuse the view.